VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

From Jan. 15 through April 2, 2011, Blaffer Art Museum presents a major exhibition featuring film-based works by the internationally acclaimed Belgium artist Johan Grimonprez, It’s a Poor Sort of Memory that Only Works Backwards. On view concurrently with Grimonprez's work and shown in continuation of Blaffer's "First Take" project series is an installation by Okay Mountain, a collective of 10 artists based in Austin, Texas.

The public is invited to a free opening reception for both exhibitions on Friday, Jan. 14, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Complimentary drinks will be provided. Blaffer Art Museum is located in the Fine Arts Building on the University of Houston's central campus.

Johan Grimonprez achieved international acclaim with his film essay, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), which premiered at the Centre Pompidou and Documenta X in Kassel, followed by Looking for Alfred (2005), which won the International Media Award (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Germany) in 2005 and the European Media Award in 2006, and Double Take in 2009.

Brought up on a diet of television and homemade video, Grimonprez mixes reality and fiction in an innovative fashion and presents contemporary history from multiple perspectives, readily open to manipulation. The point of departure for Grimonprez's work is the retelling of post-World War II history through the lens of technological progress and invention. He pays particular attention to the influence and consequence of the introduction and dissemination of new media -- from film, video, digital imaging and sound recording, on the one hand, to theatre, television, on-demand viewing at home and the internet, on the other.

Coinciding with the recent release of Double Take, Blaffer Art Museum presents all three of the aforementioned works as well as Kobarweng or Where is you Helicopter? (1992), It will be all right if you come again, only next time, don't bring any gear, except a tea kettle... (1994/2003), and the ongoing project Maybe the Sky Is Really Green and We're Just Colorblind. Presented as a 'You-Tube-o-Theque/Petroteque' and composed of found materials drawn from the internet, cell phone videos and online television, this compilation of clips to be browsed on-demand is both a joyful affirmation of global disengagement as well as the catalyst of effervescent criticism, best described as a platform for temporary disobedience.

Formed in 2006 in Austin, Texas, Okay Mountain is the brainchild of Sterling Allen, Tim Brown, Peat Duggins, Justin Goldwater, Nathan Green, Ryan Hennessee, Josh Rios, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Michael Sieben, and Corkey Sinks, who originally came together to form an alternative gallery space. Okay Mountain evolved into an artist collective when its founding members began creating art together outside of the gallery environs. What began as collaborative drawing sessions during weekly staff meetings has since developed into a wide range of collaborative projects across a variety of media, including drawing, video, sound, performance, prints, murals and large-scale sculptural installations.

Okay Mountain's collaborative practice is fueled by the desire to define new ways of working as a collective by emphasizing both the similarities and the differences of the individual members' aesthetical and conceptual strategies. Okay Mountain's projects play on the conventions and absurdities of contemporary consumer culture drawing on pop graphics and styling to create works that are scrappy, colorful and, in their own words, "maximal."

For their exhibition at Blaffer, Okay Mountain will create an immersive environment composed of multipart-installations featuring sculptures, videos, sounds, lights and wall drawings that explores sleeping as an altered state vulnerable to coercion.

"Visitors to Blaffer this winter will witness two psychologically engaging exhibitions," explained Blaffer director and chief curator Claudia Schmuckli. "Some of Grimonprez's work is informed by Hitchcockian suspense, especially as it relates to a fear of 'a threat from above.' Okay Mountain's installation explores the idea of menacing dream incubation, that one is susceptible to persuasion while asleep."

This notion of sleep coercion was made popular by last summer's blockbuster hit Inception. Grimonprez's theme of "a threat from above" is prevalent in Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, which incorporates footage of aircraft hijackings and plane crashes, eerily foreshadowing the events of Sept. 11 and the notion of terror formed in its wake. The theme continues in Double Take, which intertwines Cold War televised newsbreaks with excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock's films and television appearances. "The similarities between Cold War-era angst about the threat of nuclear warheads falling from the sky, post-9-11 anxiety about terrorist activity in the sky and the terror created by avian attacks in Hitchcock's The Birds is both striking and compelling," Schmuckli added.

Organized by Claudia Schmuckli, Johan Grimonprez: It's a Poor Sort of Memory that Only Works Backwards will be accompanied by a reader composed of collected and newly commissioned texts and interviews and will be published in collaboration with the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.

Johan Grimonprez was born in Roeselare, Belgium in 1962. He studied at the School of Visual Arts and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. He lives and works in Brussels and New York.

First Take: Okay Mountain is organized by Claudia Schmuckli. Okay Mountain is Sterling Allen, Tim Brown, Peat Duggins, Justin Goldwater, Nathan Green, Ryan Hennessee, Josh Rios, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Michael Sieben and Corkey Sinks. The artists live and work in Austin, Texas, Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Schedule of Events:

2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14
Press Preview
RSVP: 713.743.9528

6 - 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14
Opening Reception

2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15
Artist's Talk with Johan Grimonprez
* Freed Auditorium, Glassell School of Art
5101 Montrose Boulevard

About Blaffer:
Founded in 1973, Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston was named in honor of the late Sarah Campbell Blaffer, a noted Houston arts patron and collector. Since its inception, the museum has been a vital force in the presentation and promotion of contemporary visual arts in Houston. Blaffer is located in the Fine Arts Building on the University of Houston's central campus, entrance 16 south of Cullen Boulevard. It is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sundays, Mondays, university holidays and during exhibition installations (visit the website or call to confirm). The museum is ADA compliant.

For general inquiries, please call 713.743.9521, or visit the museum online at www.blafferartmuseum.org.

Johan Grimonprez: It's a Poor Sort of Memory that Only Works Backwards is organized by Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. The exhibition is made possible, in part, by The Cecil Amelia Blaffer von Furstenberg Endowment for Exhibitions and Programs and Houston Endowment Inc.

First Take: Okay Mountain is organized by Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. The exhibition is made possible, in part, by The Cecil Amelia Blaffer von Furstenberg Endowment for Exhibitions and Programs and Houston Endowment Inc.

Blaffer Art Museum exhibitions and programs are supported by the Blaffer Director's Discretionary Endowment Fund, the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, The George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Educational support is provided by Dorothy C. Sumner, the Travelers Foundation, the Kinder Morgan Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. In kind support is provided by KUHF and Xpedite Coatings.

Pictured:  Johan Grimonprez, detail of a Still from Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1997. Courtesy of the artist.